TRAINING VERSUS PROFESSION: FROM TRANSLATION TO WEB LOCALIZATION

One of the hottest topics of debate in the context of higher education is the existing divide in different regions of the world between university training and the job market. Although no consensus exists on possible ways to solve this, it is probably necessary to seek a balance between passive submission to the fluctuations in market demands, and settling in to educational stagnation.

The Translation and Interpreting Degree offered in Spanish universities teaches students specific linguistic, cultural and instrumental knowledge that enables them to solve problems specific to the essential modalities and spheres of translation and interpreting.

The job market those graduating in this degree enter is complex, for various reasons (Olvera-Lobo et al, 2005). It is a dynamic, multimedia market, focused on speed, which demands high quality, based on teamwork and, above all in recent times, one dominated by localization as an emerging activity.

It can be affirmed that, given that translation has evolved in the same manner as its environment, teaching methods must also adapt to the new era and to the reality of the market. We have proposed a teaching-learning environment based on our PATT (Professional Approach to Translator Training) Model (Olvera-Lobo, M.D. et al., 2007; Robinson, Olvera-Lobo & Gutiérrez-Artacho, 2016) which, under a social constructivist focus, offers the opportunity to integrate the fundamental subjects of the degree in a way that the training of future translators is guaranteed the necessary coherence provided by this broad vision of the profession. In this context, ICTs are essential tools.

Despite the fact that, traditionally, student assessment has focused on the product, that is, the translated text, we argue that the assessment of the translation process, although entailing an enormous challenge, better reflects the acquisition of skills. Furthermore, the ideal situation would be for students, within the framework of continuous training, to be able to manage their own learning experience. We have designed self-assessment and peer review tools that take in a wide range of skills.

Within the sphere of translation, localization is the linguistic, cultural and technical translation, and adaptation, of an electronic product into another product aimed at a local market. In the final part of our study we focus on pedagogical issues related to the training of specialised translators and localizers who will be working in the field of web localization.